Tan Kah Kee
Tan Kah Kee's birth certificate October 21, 1874, Jimei Town, Tong'an County, Fujian Province. From his great-grandfather's generation, the Chen family has a tradition of going out to sea to earn a living, which can be regarded as a family of overseas Chinese. Since childhood, Tan Kah Kee’s family conditions can be said to be quite superior. When he was 17 years old, he traveled to Singapore and inherited his father’s large-scale rice shop. He is now a "rich second generation".
But unfortunately, this kind of life did not last long. In 1898, 24-year-old Tan Kah Kee returned to China to keep his filial piety for three years because of his mother’s death. Three years later, he returned to Singapore to find out that his father’s investment had failed. Not only was he seriously ill, but also Owed huge foreign debts. Singapore was a British colony at that time. In British law, there was no such thing as "father's debt repayment". He didn't have to repay this almost astronomical huge foreign debt, but Tan Kah Kee took the initiative to bear the debt.
Tan Kah Kee, who returned to Singapore, began to show off his extraordinary business talents. With his father’s connections, he borrowed 7,000 Oceans and opened a cannery with the money, because he found that Europeans are very interested in pineapples from Southeast Asia. But fresh pineapples are difficult to transport over long distances, and the canned food processing technology that happened to have just emerged at that time perfectly solved this problem. As soon as the factory opened, canned pineapple continued to be sold to Europe, and this made Tan Kah Kee his first pot of gold. It took ten years for Tan Kah Kee to pay off the debts owed by his father with a profit. This is exactly the word "sincerity" he sticks to as a human being.
In 1914, the First World War broke out and the export business was not well done due to the war. Tan Kah Kee discovered that the United States' demand for various rubber products suddenly increased. So he boldly bought a large area of land to grow rubber, and set up a factory specializing in the production of rubber shoes, tires and other rubber products. Only eleven years later, Tan Kah Kee's rubber business spread to more than 100 cities around the world, with total assets as high as 12 million silver dollars, equivalent to 1 million taels of gold at that time. Tan Kah Kee paid back a huge debt of 200,000 silver dollars for ten years.
What did Tan Kah Kee do? Eat, drink and play or invest in a factory to expand the scale? nothing.
Tan Kah Kee once read a report,Among them, the number of illiterate people in Britain, the United States, France and Germany is less than 10 per 100 people, less than 30 per 100 people in Japan, and 96 illiterate per 100 people in China. Not to mention the authenticity and accuracy of this report at the time, but this report kept Tan Kah Kee awake at night, tossing and turning. He made up his mind to let Chinese children go to school or even college. He hopes to enlighten the people through education, eliminate the ignorance of the people, and solve the problems of Chinese society from the root.
In addition to the Jimei Primary School in his hometown, the school he donated to build later also built a teachers’ college, a sailing school, a girls’ middle school, etc., and donated more than 70 primary and secondary schools throughout Fujian Province. The money he earned was invested in building the school as soon as he changed hands.
Xiamen University-Statue of Mr. Tan Kah Kee
And Xiamen University, a century-old university that we know well, was founded by Mr. Tan Kah Kee. However, the donation and construction of this university was not so smooth. During the late Qing Dynasty, corruption was rampant in China, and the overseas Chinese had a low degree of recognition of the motherland. Some even bluntly said that they would rather be taxed by the British in inheritance tax than take the money. Filling the bottomless pit, just like that, the three fundraising initiated all ended in failure. However, Mr. Tan Kah Kee did not give up because of this. Since no one responded, I would like to run this university as well as the best university! Mr. Tan Kah Kee pledged 4 million Oceans to establish Xiamen University. If he didn't do anything, he stunned a lot of national universities. He was not stingy with the teachers who came to Xiamen University to teach, and his salary was 2-3 times that of other universities.
Group photo of teachers in the early days of Xiamen University
Famous Lu Xun, Lin Yutang, , Shen Jianshi, and were from all parts of the country when Xiamen span13span was just founded by Gu Jie, etc. Coming teacher. The strength of the teaching staff is so amazing, then Tan Kah Kee’s personal life must be very luxurious. In fact, many of his daily necessities have been supplemented and supplemented.Including socks, umbrellas, etc. Tan Kah Kee’s total expenditure in the past 20 years was 13.3 million yuan, and the amount spent on running a school was as high as 12.17 million yuan. More than 90% of the money he earned from doing business was spent on running the school. superior.
And just as Tan Kah Kee was gearing up to develop Xiamen University into a world-class university, a series of bad things followed. In 1928, Japan attacked Jinan and massacred citizens. After receiving the news, Tan Kah Kee was filled with indignation and led the overseas Chinese in Nanyang to launch a "boycott of Japanese goods". Immediately after 1929, the economic crisis that swept the world broke out. This year, Tan Kah Kee's business suffered a huge loss, and the company that was established with all his efforts was on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1934, Tan Kah Kee declared bankruptcy, and the rubber king came to an end.
The unparalleled appeal among overseas Chinese that he has accumulated over the decades has made him embark on another road to save the country and the people. In 1937, when the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Tan Kah Kee launched the "Nanyang Overseas Chinese to Raise Relief for Refugees from the Motherland" in Singapore and contributed more than 360 million yuan to the motherland in 1939 alone!
In Wang Jingwei publicized the so-called "curve to save the country" theory. In fact, he wanted to break the Chinese military and civilians' anti-Japanese fighting spirit and boldly betray the country for prosperity. When Tan Kah Kee sent out a telegram as a member of the National Political Council , The content is like this "Before the Japanese invaders withdraw from our country, any public servant who negotiates peace terms with anyone will be treated as a traitor." Just a few words made a national sensation.
Mr. Tan Kah Kee and Chairman Mao Zedong
Chairman Mao Zedong personally sent a telegram in May 1949 to invite Tan Kah Kee to Beijing, and on October 1 the founding ceremony , Tan Kah Kee appeared as a guest of honor Tower .
Tan Kah Kee returned to Xiamen in his later years. Since Xiamen University was extensively damaged in the war, he decided to spend all his remaining time on repairing and expanding Xiamen University.At this time, Tan Kah Kee's income was only 500 yuan as a monthly salary from the state, and he only left 15 yuan for living expenses for this money, and all the rest was donated to Xiamen University as a fund.
Mr. Tan Kah Kee personally wrote the school motto "Cheng Yi"
Mr. Tan Kah Kee once wrote the school motto "Cheng Yi" for Jimei School: "Honesty" is honesty, sincere to others; "Yi" is perseverance, Be persevering. And these two words are also the best portrayal of his life.
Mr. Tan Kah Kee Memorial Ceremony
On August 12, 1961, Mr. Tan Kah Kee passed away due to illness. The rich man who once smashed the mall only left his posterity with a small seal. Chairman Mao personally proposed to him "the national glory of the overseas Chinese". Many state leaders personally held the coffin and tens of thousands of representatives from all walks of life bid farewell to Tan Kah Kee.
In 1990, the International Asteroid Naming Center named the asteroid 2963 "Tan Kah Kee's Star". The name Tan Kah Kee and his lifelong legend will eternally live in the sky with the shining starlight and will be recorded in history forever.
I would like to pay tribute to Mr. Tan Kah Kee and countless patriotic overseas Chinese.
.
